Economic control behavior should be included in the anti-domestic violence law. The


  full-time wife asked for living expenses and was asked to pay IOUs. Experts reminded that they may be suspected of economic control.

  □ Our reporter Zhao Chenxi

  On January 19, Ms. Li from Xi'an, Shaanxi, posted a video online, saying her husband beat her many times.

It is worth noting that Ms. Li mentioned in the video that as a full-time wife, she asked her husband for 500 yuan for living expenses and also paid an IOU.

  While the domestic violence video has made netizens angry, it has also once again aroused people's attention and thinking about domestic violence.

  In response to the situation that Ms. Li asked her husband for living expenses and was asked to pay IOUs, Zhang Jing, member of the Marriage and Family Professional Committee of the Beijing Lawyers Association and director of the Marriage Inheritance Department of Beijing Lianggao Law Firm, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" recently that this kind of The behavior has been suspected to constitute economic control, but the current anti-domestic violence law does not explicitly include economic control, which makes it difficult to seek judicial protection when encountering such behavior, and the law should be revised and improved as soon as possible.

  Many cases of domestic violence are accompanied by acts of economic control

  In the eyes of friends, Chen Hong (pseudonym), who lives in Fengtai District, Beijing, is an enviable woman. Not only is she beautiful, but her husband is also the sales executive of an Internet company, making Chen Hong feel at home as a "full-time wife".

  Every time she hears such a "compliment", Chen Hong can only force a smile.

In her previous job, Chen Hong often had contact with male clients, and her suspicious husband made her quit her job.

The so-called "full-time wife" just stays at home, and her husband does not allow her to "touch money". All the money she saved from work in the past has been transferred to her husband's card, and she has to "report" anything she buys.

  Lv Xiaoquan, deputy director of Beijing Zhongze Women's Legal Advisory Service Center, has been in contact with a lot of cases like Chen Hong's. "This is a typical behavior of economic control." Lv Xiaoquan said that the so-called economic control generally refers to the perpetrator's control over family members. The strict control of common property and family income and expenditure will destroy the victim's self-esteem, self-confidence and sense of self-worth, so as to achieve the purpose of controlling the victim.

  "This kind of behavior also violates the relevant provisions on the equality of husband and wife in the marriage and family section of the Civil Code." Zhang Jing pointed out that the Civil Code clearly stipulates that "husbands and wives have equal status in the family" and "husbands and wives have equal rights to deal with common property."" Both husband and wife have the freedom to participate in production, work, study and social activities, and one party shall not restrict or interfere with the other party.”

Therefore, when one party uses living expenses as a "weapon" to control the other party's economy and forcibly interfere with the other party's work, thus affecting normal social interactions, the equal relationship between marriage and family has broken down, and domestic violence is constituted.

  Regarding her husband's behavior, Chen Hong never thought of calling the police, because her husband had never hit her, and in her perception, this was not domestic violence.

  In 2018, the "Research Report on Promoting the City's Anti-Domestic Violence Work" released by the Hangzhou Women's Federation of Zhejiang Province showed that more than 40% of the respondents did not know that economic control also belongs to domestic violence.

  In the domestic violence cases that Zhang Jing came into contact with, many of them were accompanied by economic control behaviors. However, because most of the victims simply understood domestic violence as physical violence, economic control behaviors were ignored, which also made such illegal behaviors have long-term persistence. sex.

  Local legislation clarifies that economic control is domestic violence

  Domestic violence is by no means a "family affair", but an act strictly prohibited by law.

The Anti-Domestic Violence Law, which came into effect on March 1, 2016, has provided an "umbrella" for victims of domestic violence.

  Article 2 of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law stipulates that domestic violence refers to physical and mental violations carried out by family members by means of beating, binding, maiming, restricting personal freedom, and frequent abuse and intimidation.

  It can be seen from this that the domestic violence law is divided into two categories: physical abuse and mental abuse, and economic control is not explicitly included in it.

  In Zhang Jing's view, this is a pity, because both international conventions and many Western countries have explicitly included economic control in domestic violence.

  The reporter noticed that in March 2008, the Guidelines for the Trial of Marriage Cases Involving Domestic Violence compiled by the China Institute of Applied Law of the Supreme People's Court divided domestic violence into four types: physical violence, sexual violence, mental violence and economic control.

  In some local regulations, economic controls are also incorporated.

  The "Jiangsu Province Anti-Domestic Violence Regulations", which will take effect on March 1, 2022, clearly stipulates that domestic violence refers to physical violence, mental violence, sexual violence, economic control and other violations between family members, and lists The specific manifestations of economic control, that is, the implementation of abnormal economic control, deprivation of property and other violations.

  Why the Anti-Domestic Violence Law did not include economic control, Zhang Jing analyzed that the main reason is still influenced by traditional concepts. For a long time, the society's understanding of domestic violence has been more at the level of physical violence. The Anti-Domestic Violence Law Violations are also included, which is already an improvement.

  However, in Lv Xiaoquan's view, the Anti-Domestic Violence Law has reserved a "hole" for future revisions.

For example, Article 2 of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law uses the expression "physical, mental and other violations", and the word "etc" provides the possibility to increase economic control in the future.

The expression "the state prohibits any form of domestic violence" in Article 3 actually covers economic control as a form of domestic violence.

  Improve the rules for assigning the burden of proof in domestic violence cases

  The Anti-Domestic Violence Law has been in force for more than five years, and has played a vital role in raising public awareness and addressing domestic violence. However, the experts interviewed suggested that consideration should be given to amending and improving the Anti-Domestic Violence Law. Bring it into the scope of legal regulation and improve the meaning of domestic violence.

  "Currently, there are not a few acts of economic control in domestic violence cases. Due to the lack of clear regulations in the law, in judicial practice, it is difficult to identify judicial protection solely on the basis of economic control." Zhang Jing admitted that this reality will only Let more victims of economic control choose silence, and make the violations worse.

  Considering that the public does not have a deep understanding and awareness of economic control behavior, Zhang Jing suggested that while economic control is clearly included in the anti-domestic violence law, its concept and identification criteria should be clarified in the law.

  "The core element of economic control is 'control', because it directly affects whether the two parties are on an equal footing." Zhang Jing said, for example, there are some "wife management" in practice, which will be "handed over" to the account after the salary is received. Wife, this kind of behavior does not belong to the economic control in domestic violence, because the husband and wife are still in an equal position in essence.

The core of economic control must be control. This kind of control has two meanings: one is that the injuring party strictly controls the common property of family members and other behaviors, so that family members have no equal rights to deal with family property; Actual control over the victim's body or spirit.

  Combined with some domestic violence cases, Lv Xiaoquan suggested that the issue of the burden of proof in domestic violence cases should be further improved in the revision of the law, and the principle of "presumption of fault" should be adopted to reasonably distribute the burden of proof between the plaintiff and the defendant.

  In current judicial practice, the burden of proof in cases of domestic violence generally adopts the principle of "whoever claims, whoever provides evidence", and the victim provides evidence of persecution.

However, Lv Xiaoquan pointed out that domestic violence cases have various characteristics such as concealment, periodicity and complexity, and the status between the victim and the perpetrator is unequal. This kind of proof rule is not fair to the victim and also leads to domestic violence. recognition rate is low.

  Article 40 of the "Guidelines for the Trial of Marriage Cases Involving Domestic Violence" proposes the concept of "transfer of the burden of proof under certain circumstances" on the burden of proof in the trial of domestic violence cases.

  In Lv Xiaoquan's view, this concept can be understood as the principle of "presumption of fault". The plaintiff shall provide evidence to prove the fact that he was infringed and the consequences of the injury, and at the same time identify that the domestic violence was committed by the defendant.

After that, the burden of proof should be transferred to the defendant. The defendant needs to provide evidence to prove that he did not cause any harm. If it cannot be proved, it can be presumed that the defendant is the offender and the existence of domestic violence.

  Lv Xiaoquan reminded that this burden of proof is not "inversion of the burden of proof", and the basic evidence still needs to be provided by the plaintiff, which can prevent some people from maliciously filing lawsuits under the guise of domestic violence.